In new poll, parents disagree with Trump’s push to fully reopen schools

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

Most American parents disapprove of President Trump's push to fully reopen schools amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. According to a Washington Post-Schar School survey conducted by Ipsos, 63 percent of parents disapprove of how the Trump administration has handled this issue while 36 percent approve.

While 44 percent strongly disapprove, a far smaller 15 percent strongly approve. These views are mirrored among the broader public at large in a parallel survey.

With the election three months away, and the country contending with its worst public health crisis in a century, this is the latest example of Trump being on the opposite side of the majority of Americans. Even some of Trump's top advisers, including White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx, have privately argued against the president's push to fully reopen schools.

Because more people have come to accept the public health value of wearing masks, whether to send kids back to classrooms has become arguably the biggest flashpoint in the ongoing culture wars over how to control the contagion. This new survey finds deep partisan, socioeconomic and racial divides on questions relating not just to Trump's approach but also, taking the president out of it, what they think would be the correct solution.

While 75 percent of Republican parents approve of the Trump administration's approach, 31 percent of independents and 10 percent of Democrats do. While 48 percent of White parents back the administration's approach, 11 percent of Black parents and 22 percent of Hispanic parents do. Among parents with children enrolled in private schools, 49 percent approve of the administration's handling of the issue, compared to 34 percent who have children in public or charter schools.

More than 80 percent of parents in the new poll favor holding school at least partly online."But parents also express serious concerns with online schooling," Laura Meckler and Emily Guskin report. "Given three options for the fall, a plurality of parents — 44 percent — want their schools to offer a mix of online and in-person classes, an idea that has been considered by many school districts and adopted by some. In a close second place is all-virtual education, favored by 39 percent of parents. Fully in-person school, the approach pushed by [Trump] and his allies in Congress, comes in a distant third, with 16 percent favoring it for their children. A separate question finds that two-thirds of parents oppose requiring all public schools to open for in-person classes five days a week."

On Wednesday night, Facebook removed from Trump's official account the post of a video clip from a telephone interview the president gave Fox News earlier in the day in which, while arguing that schools should fully reopen, he falsely claimed that children are "almost immune" from covid-19. Twitter required the Trump campaign account to delete a tweet with the same video, blocking it from tweeting in the interim.

"While many children have had milder symptoms from the virus, researchers have found they are still able to catch and spread it to other people, including adults at home and in school settings, such as teachers," Heather Kelly notes. "More than 240,000 children in the United States have been documented to have covid-19 … Around 300 children have contracted a rare inflammatory disease due to covid-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, and six have died."

Every day brings more cautionary tales that highlight the danger of reopening too soon. "Last week, schools in Corinth, Miss., welcomed back hundreds of students. By Friday, one high schooler tested positive for the novel coronavirus. By early this week, the count rose to six students and one staff member infected. Now, 116 students have been sent home to quarantine," Jaclyn Peiser reports. "In southeast Kansas, six school administrators tested positive after attending a three-day retreat. And within hours of opening, a school in Greenfield, Ind., was informed by the health department that a student had the virus."

Fourth-graders in a North Carolina private school system that Vice President Pence applauded last week for reopening must now quarantine for 14 days, along with their teachers, after a student tested positive. "The school, a Thales Academy in Wake Forest, said it was notified on Monday that the [asymptomatic] student became infected after having contact with an infected family member," ABC News reports. "Thales Academy, a network of private non-sectarian community schools with eight locations in North Carolina, made the news last week after [Pence] and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited … a campus in Apex [about 30 miles away from Wake Forest]. … 'We're here today because to open up America, we've got to open up America's schools and Thales Academy is literally in the forefront,' Pence said. … Because the school network is private, it doesn't have to adhere to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's school reopening guidelines."

Stories like this do not appear to be outliers. A Georgia second-grader tested positive after the first day of school, forcing the child's whole class and teacher to be sent home to quarantine for two weeks, per CBS News.

"North Paulding High School, about an hour outside Atlanta, reopened Monday despite an outbreak among members of its high school football team, many of whom, a Facebook video shows, worked out together in a crowded indoor gym last week as part of a weightlifting fundraiser," BuzzFeed News reports. "Within days of that workout, several North Paulding players had tested positive for the coronavirus. The school's parents were notified just hours before the first day of class. And multiple teachers at North Paulding say there are positive tests among school staff, including a staff member who came into contact with most teachers at the school while exhibiting symptoms last week. …

"Despite recommendations from CDC health officials, the district has called mask-wearing a 'personal choice' and said that social distancing 'will not be possible to enforce' in 'most cases.' … Some students at North Paulding say they were forced to attend school in person because all of the slots for the district's virtual learning option were filled. … On Wednesday, the school addressed the controversy that had swirled around [a viral photograph of its crowded hallways] via an intercom announcement from North Paulding High School principal Gabe Carmona. … He stated that any student found criticizing the school on social media could face disciplinary consequences."

Eight in 10 parents say they worry going back into school on a full schedule will lead to teachers or their families becoming sick. "Nearly as many say opening schools could lead to their own children or families getting sick, with majorities of Black and Hispanic parents saying they are 'very concerned' about this, compared with about one-third of White parents," per Meckler and Guskin. "Yet most parents — even some who say it's safe to open schools — are also concerned about the consequences of more virtual education. Nearly 7 in 10 say they worry children will fall behind in their education. Just over 6 in 10 say they worry their children's friendships will suffer and almost as many worry that their kids will become depressed."